Assembly investigates axing of Venezuela oil deal

The London Assembly is to investigate the implications of ending Ken Livingstone’s controversial ‘oil for advice’ deal with Venezuela. Under the deal London received a payment equivalent to 20 per cent of the price of fuel for the capital’s bus fleet. This saving was passed on to income support recipients – some of the poorest households in London – in the form of reduced bus fares.

The agreement was scrapped by Boris Johnson who expressed concerns over “one of the world’s financial powerhouses being funded by the people of a country where many people live in extreme poverty.”

However, in a move which attracted widespread criticism the announcement was sneaked out in a press release over a Bank Holiday weekend and for months the Mayor’s staff were unable to confirm whether subsidised travel for income support recipients would be continued.

One spokesman for the Mayor told the International Herald Tribune “there were no plans to offer low-income residents advantageous bus fares”.

In June this position was modified with Mayor Johnson telling Green Party Assembly Member Darren Johnson he had “asked TfL to investigate more suitable forms of fares concession for low income Londoners for consideration at the next fares revision.”

Only in September did Johnson and Transport for London confirm that there would continue to be half-price travel.

Tomorrow (6 November) the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee will look at the implications of ending the ’ deal with Venezuela and question Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s Director of Transport Policy, and Shashi Verma, Head of Fares and Ticketing at Transport for London on details of the new scheme and how it will be marketed.

The meeting will also examine the budget for publicising the Mayor’s policies and will question key members of the Mayor’s communications team including Director of Communications Guto Harri and Dan Ritterband, Director of Marketing.

The meeting is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, 6 November from 10:30am in the Chamber at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1).

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Comments

Well it looka as though John Biggs and Mike Tuffrey will have a field day. All the “Rainbow Alliance” Members supported the deal which just leaves the four Conservatives out of nine on the Committee ‘against’.

It does seem odd that Boris ended the deal on more or less ideological grounds – he wasn’t ‘comfortable’ with the arrangement. It was of undoubted net benefit to London because what we gave back in return was the ‘expertise’ of TfL officials, including Peter Hendy, advising how the Transport problems in Caracas could be solved. It was argued that the cost to TfL was minimal whereas if Chavez had tendered for the same advice on the open market it would have cost him millions. It was therefore a “win – win” situation.

John Biggs once commented about Mike Tuffrey that “he looked like a Clergyman but spoke like an Accountant” – which of course he is. I thought that was quite a perceptive comment since Mike Tuffrey does appear a bit like a Clergyman without the ‘dog collar’ and cannot resist giving a sort of ‘mini-sermon’ given the slightest opportunity. Pity I can’t be there to hear his latest one.

The Venezuelan oil supplied by President Hugo Chavez. He is said to be supplying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with uranium.
Chavez told the UN that George bush was the Anti Christ and when he met him he cold smell sulfur in the air. So in a bid to antagonize the US he has agreed to supply Iran with Uranium to help with their nuclear program. Is this really the man that the London Assembly want to get in bed with just to save a few bob.

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